Electric Field And Temperature Distribution Along The Polymer Rod Type Suspension Insulator In Polluted Environment

This paper presents a study of the electric field and temperature distribution along the surface of the polymer insulator operating in polluted environment. The study was carried out through the simulations for clean and non-uniformly contaminated insulator surface using finite element tool Comsol Multiphysics software. It has been shown, through the simulation results, that the pollution conductivity significantly affects the heat and electric field propagation along the insulator surface. Area of the insulator surface with lower conductivity value, experiences higher temperatures along with higher electrical field stresses. This indicates that the regions with lower conductivity value become critically over stressed and they contribute to a non-uniform drying process leading to a formation of dry band areas with possible flashover as an epilogue. The main goal is to point out those critical regions resulting as a consequence from different value of the electrical conductivity of the pollution layer.